Big Family Day

Or, is that Big Day Family? 🙂

Morgan and his crew, and Beck, Sio and I all piled into our vehicles and went to Purina Farms for the morning. Purina has a great facility, and Beck and I have been there a few times for dog shows and dog agility events. Today though, we did travelled the tourist path, and wandered through the exhibits and barns.

They have a magnificent cat house, built inside one of their buildings. That thing is two stories tall, and had about half a dozen cats in it…. including a Maine Coon Cat! Man, I just love the look of those guys. They are soooo big and fluffy. I expect that if we get another cat someday, it might just be a Maine Coon.

We made our way to the barns and got to see and pet most of the animals you’d expect — cows, horses, pigs, rabbits. It’s a neat walk through the barn, and worth doing. At the end of our walk, one of the farmhands brought a cow in for milking, and all the kids got to milk Bessie by hand. Even a big kid — your humble author — took a turn and put a bit of milk in a bucket. Dunno what I was expecting — I’ve never done that before — but it was like grabbing onto the finger of a dishwashing glove that had been filled with some kind of gelatinous substance. A little weird!

Once we finished there, we got a snack, and walked over to a dog agility demonstration. I was expecting a competition of some kind, which this wasn’t, but it was still enjoyable and a good introduction for the kids to agility competition. They got to count “uh-ohs” that the dogs had along the course, and helped with the countdowns during the course.

After a little rest, we geared up for having a bunch of folks over to see the Virginia Days. Mark and Angie, along with their babies, Mindy, Elma and Jules and Helen all came by for Fortel’s pizza and ice cream. I still think Fortel’s has just about the best pizza in town, only behind the Blackthorn Pub.

After a long day and night of playing with various parts of the family, we collapsed into a well-deserved slumber!